How would you improve Coursera?

Coursera is an online learning platform where users can go, find out different certifications and complete them in self-assisted pace. So when we say improve.. what are we trying to improve here?

            Possible options are:

Ø  Overall user engagement

Ø  Experience for certification creators and universities

Ø  Improve revenue generation model

Let’s stick to improve overall user engagement

So, in order to improve the overall user engagement experience – we can start by identifying who are the user persona’s for Coursera.

Ø  Students

Ø  Parents of the students

Ø  Professionals who are looking to upgrade

Now going through the user journey, we can think of their needs and the area where there is a gap and we can improve

Ø  Login to the Coursera

Ø  Do I know what certification I want to do? > recommendations based on your profile and area of interest – high priority

Ø  Suggest trending certifications based on in demand skills for a particular sector

Ø  Once a certification is selected, explain the mode of teaching. Is it self-paced or online-offline class model, paid, free , credits etc? – high priority

Ø  Keep track of progress and provide regular updates on the progress made, motivate in some sense to complete the certifications on time. – medium high ( as there is already some motivation given that the user has enrolled in the course )

Ø  Giving certificate at the completion of the course.

Picking up – how to help users to choose a certification to be completed.

When we login on Coursera, they already have suggestions based on area of interest and trending topics.

Additionally following things can be done:

1.     A curated learning path based on user’s aspirations, current knowledge and area of interest.

2.     Connect with users who have completed the course and help the aspirants understand if the certification will be helpful or not.

3.     An analytical view/dashboard which gives insights onto the skills acquired, relevance in the industry, and how the people with those skills are doing in the industry. It could be anything – like how people with good behavioural skills are doing in the counselling field/ jobs.

1 could be implemented using AI – it will be faster to develop and test.

2. This will take a bit more effort, as this requires connecting with the existing users. They need to be motivated enough to help other users. There has to be incentive and a self-motivation to get involved in this program.

Problem statement - Improve coursera

What is Coursera? - An online learning platform which offers degrees, professional courses, certificates, degrees, etc. curated by top universities professionals and recognised by leading companies.

Goals -

• Increase user base? Yes
• Increase user engagement? Yes
• Increase revenue? Yes

• Any specific geography? You decide
• Any specific users? No
• Any specific platform? No
• Any existing issues? No

• Students
• Parents
• Professionals
• Professors

• Students - Study new courses for knowledge and getting degrees
• Parents - Need to check the progress of their children
• Professionals - Need to upskill, get professional certifications
• Professors - Create and upload new courses, Take online classes [Not in scope for this discussion`11]

• Not knowing about the right courses based on their requirements
• Not knowing about any upcoming online classes
• Not able to choose the exact course from a list of curated courses
• When it comes to certifications, users are not clear which are recognised by more organsiations
• Upskilling need to know which are the right skills to get acquainted with, whcih the users don't have much clue
• In case of students, parents are not sure about the right courses into which they should enroll their children

• Self assisted learning [Already available]
  • Users should be able to search for a category
  • Users should be able to see the available courses for each category
  • Users should be able to compare the different courses in terms of content, completion time and user ratings
  • Users should be able to select a course and start learning
  • Users should be able to see the list of courses at one place and resume the courses from where they paused the previous time
• Recommended learning [Already available]
  • Users should have an option to share their requirements and based that coursera can suggest recommended coursed suting their requirement sfrom which the users can choose and opt to take up these courses
• Curated career path [High impact, High effort]
  • This would be the next level of recommended learning, where coursera expert team can create a learning path of all the right courses in the right order to maximise the knowledge base for any user
• Loyalty programs [High impact, Medium effort]
  • Currently, there are two types of courses - free and paid, and users needs to choose from them and proceed accordingly
  • Under this program, based on the user engagement in the platform, they will be awarded different badges witth assocaited benefits and loyalty points.
  • The loyalty points can be accumulated and paid for in cash while enrolling for a paid course. Thes points can vary for a free v/s a paid course.
  • Additionally, the badges will inculcate a sense of command and skill proficiency to the users, impacting their confidence levels.
• AI assisted career coach [Medium impact, Medium effort]
  • Can set reminders for course completions
  • Can set personalised daily/ weekly goals
  • Can suggest relevant courses

• # new users
• % users enrolling for new courses
• % users enrolling from recommended list of courses
• % users enrolling into the curated career path program
• % course completion rate
• % certification complete rate
• % increase in paid courses
• % increase in revenue
• User NPS